Hexenaltar is a Black/Thrash Metal band from Warsaw, Poland, which just released it’s debut full-length album, after a series of EP’s and splits that started in 2022, when this was still a solo project of Marc. My first and only contact with this band took place last year when I saw a guy wear a T-Shirt of Hexenaltar’s ‘Tormented Possesion’. Naturally, I went home and looked them up, but to be honest I did not enjoy that EP as much as I expected. Pretty solid riffs, your standard Black and Thrash mixture but there was still plenty of room for improvement.
With that being said, on ‘Descending Curse’, released on the 20th of May, Hexenaltar definitely improved a lot, without losing their evil, Black Metal inspired charm. The drums hit harder, the riffs feel powerful and the vocals feel like screams summoned from hell itself. Clocking in at precisely 26 minutes, this album delivers exactly what needs to be delivered from such a band, without any attempt to drag it on just to hit that 30 minute mark (because for some people, 30 minutes is the minimum for an album).
The band’s debut perfectly fits into the blueprint of the already wide-spread Blackened Thrash and Blackened Speed styles (which, quite frankly, have grown in popularity in the last few years) while still being somewhat original with their songwriting.
‘Descending Curse’ feels like a hammer to the skull: Short, comprehensive, evil. If you’re into Black-infused Thrash Metal give this record a spin. You won’t regret it. (Crisan A)
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Founded in 2021, the Polish band known as Hexenaltar got off to a flying start. This resulted in two EPs and a split cassette tape in 2022, involving labels such as Destruktion Records and Godz Ov War. However, things then went quiet around this young Black/Thrash Metal band. That silence was broken in late spring 2026 with the release of their debut album, ‘Descending Curse’.
Despite the more than three and a half years that have passed between the ‘Bestial Damnation’ EP and this debut, Hexenaltar’s formula hasn’t changed much. Both musically and in terms of visual design, everything has remained the same. Once again, the music is presented in an unattractive cover (by Juanjo Castellano); the 80s/90s cartoon-like style does not do the music justice and seems more like a parody than the work of a serious band.
And that’s a shame, because the music has real potential. Although I should also note that they haven’t quite nailed it on ‘Descending Curse’. You can clearly hear that these guys know what they’re doing with their instruments, and the individual songs are solidly put together. However, the album rushes by without any real highlights, and all the songs sound very similar to one another. The lack of originality isn’t the problem, but the slightly too homogeneous composition makes the album feel more like one long song of (almost) half an hour. What certainly doesn’t help is the sound, which is produced a bit too neatly. It seems as though the production team was a little too enthusiastic and has sanded down absolutely every sharp and rough edge.
As a result, your attention quickly wanders in all directions, and ‘Descending Curse’ degenerates into background music. Again, it’s a real shame, because it’s clear that these young guys have some good ideas. The potential is there, but it hasn’t quite come through yet. Perhaps this debut album came out just a little too soon… (FelixS)
